HiatusMedia

How To Be A Homosexual
xfPod

Animated by Christopher Fraser

Oh dear.

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How To Be A Homosexual
The Original Trailer

Concept by Joseph O'Brien, Animated by Christopher Fraser

Easily the best part of the entire project.

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How To Be A Homosexual
Episode Six

Written by Joseph O'Brien, Animated by Christopher Fraser
Featuring the voices of Joseph O'Brien, Gemma Smith. Christopher Fraser, Matthew Aplin, George Phillips and Simon Bamforth

Originally seen by very few people. More scary than anything, really. Features the first appearance of a female voice actress. We're all about equal opportunities.

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How To Be A Homosexual
Episode Five

Written by Joseph O'Brien, Animated by Christopher Fraser
Featuring the voices of Joseph O'Brien, Christopher Fraser, Matthew Aplin, and Simon Bamforth

Seen by many as the best episode, probably because there was at least some degree of time put into it. Check out the textures on that tree. A cameo by Hitler, and the addition of music. In some strange forms.

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How To Be A Homosexual
Episode Four

Written by Joseph O'Brien, Animated by Christopher Fraser
Featuring the voices of Joseph O'Brien, Christopher Fraser, Matthew Aplin, Simon Bamforth, and Joseph Beckwith

The first episode with a background, however simple it might have been. Marked improvements in timing, diversity, and a vast contribution to the stigmatisation of the word "random".

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How To Be A Homosexual
Episode Three

Written by Joseph O'Brien, Animated by Christopher Fraser
Featuring the voices of Joseph O'Brien, Christopher Fraser, Simon Bamforth, Matthew Aplin, Joseph Beckwith and George Phillips

Ooh, transparency on the subtitles! This must be good!...naturally, it wasn't, though the timing in this episode was vastly improved. The first one with a vast array of settings and characters - the final character list came to about 101, I think.

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How To Be A Homosexual
Episode Two

Written by Joseph O'Brien, Animated by Christopher Fraser
Featuring the voices of Joseph O'Brien, Christopher Fraser, Simon Bamforth, Matthew Aplin, Joseph Beckwith and George Phillips

The first episode with a background, however simple it might have been. Marked improvements in timing, diversity, and a vast contribution to the stigmatisation of the word "random".

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How To Be A Homosexual
Episode One

Written by Joseph O'Brien, Animated by Christopher Fraser
Featuring the voices of Joseph O'Brien, Christopher Fraser, Joseph Beckwith, and Matthew Aplin

This first episode was definitely the poorest, and was produced a while before the others. Undoubtedly, everything in it was crap.

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About

A project spanning two years (and the rest), How To Be A Homosexual was the beginning of a revolution. Sparking interest from all four corners of the globe, the scripts and animation that comprised the project became the foundation for YourHeartWillStop, our old site, and spurred both creators on to greater products.The How To Be A Homosexual scripts were a product of Joseph O'Brien's mind, a selection of surrealist dialogues and random tomfoolery put to paper when he was bored. The characters in these scripts took physical form in an art lesson, where Bunnyreaper drew some small sketches and Pianoabuser enlarged them. These were then brought into Flash, animated, and thus the animation series XavierFace was born. The series ran for six episodes, then stopped - partially for educational reasons, and partially because the birth of YourHeartWillStop was beginning. All of those animations can be found here, along with other goodies.

Episodes

The cartoon series, as has already been mentioned, ran for six episodes. Here you can find them all, including the sixth - an episode never originally released.

How To Be A Homosexual Episodes

Scripts

You can find the scripts, in an act-by-act, scene-by-scene form, here.

How To Be A Homosexual Scripts

Extras

The How To Be A Homosexual Theme

The theme tune was possibly the best thing about XavierFace and How To Be A Homosexual. Nowadays, it resides on the site as the Hiatus Theme, but the essence is the same - 50 seconds of sped-up hard rock bliss.

The Original Trailer

Another little gem, the XavierFace trailer was another work of genius, and probably got the most laughs. Synchronised to the theme tune, it works as a great music video if nothing else.

xfPod

A rather embarrassing take on the iPod adverts of the time. No more to be said on this one.

Old Character Models

The character models for XavierFace went through a few phases, and this page shows you the second. The first ones are lost in a sketch book somewhere, and may resurface at some point. Until then, feast your eyes on this portfolio.

The Future

So what does the future hold for How To Be A Homosexual? In the words of fanboy and sad case Michael Kay, "this is the best thing I've ever seen". It's certainly the biggest project we've ever attempted, and the first that's combined a scripted performance with animation. Even the Goblin was based off a short improv.The honest answer is, we don't know. There have been talks of making a new series, or compiling the best bits from the scripts, using frame-by-frame techniques, starting anew and all sorts, but no action's been taken yet. The reason for this is evident. Take a look at HiatusMedia.com - this is the extent to which we work, and focusing purely on one project hinders us creatively. HiatusMedia is created for whims and fancies, and something on the scale of How To Be A Homosexual...well, it's a miracle it lasted so long in the first place.

Then again, keep your eyes peeled. There may be life in this yet.

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• Flashing imagery
• Ridicule of stigmatised historical figures, i.e. Adolf Hitler
• Loud noises

Please proceed at your own discretion.

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HiatusMedia, Inc.
Terms of Service
Last revision: 20-04-08

• For the entirety of this agreement, and throughout all content featured on www.hiatusmedia.com, “Hiatus Media” and “HiatusMedia” refer to the collective two individuals Christopher Fraser and Joseph O’Brien. “HiatusMedia.com” refers exclusively to the websites www.hiatusmedia.com, hiatusmedia.com and all subdirectories, depending on where the site is accessed from.
• By accessing any content further than the front page of HiatusMedia.com, you agree to use your own user discretion when selecting content, and accept that certain areas of HiatusMedia.com may contravene laws in your specific nation or state. You accept that any legal punishment, particularly in the USA, that comes about from accessing this site is entirely the responsibility of the user.
  
• You accept, as detailed later on, that any offence taken from content within is entirely the responsibility of the user.
  By accessing any content further than the front page of HiatusMedia.com, you certify that either
  
• You are over fifteen years of age
  OR
  
• You are under fifteen years of age, but have permission of a parent or guardian to access the site.
  
• By accessing HiatusMedia.com, you agree to respect the copyright ownership of all content on HiatusMedia.com, detailed in the next paragraph. You agree not to plagiarise or quote this work, whether it be for commercial or non-commercial means, without the prior consent of all copyright entities concerned.
  
• Unless otherwise specified, HiatusMedia.com is held under a joint copyright of Christopher Fraser and Joseph O’Brien, held in most countries including the UK and US.
  
• You agree that you will not use any current or future on-site communication facilities (chat, email, forums etc.) to commit or conspire to commit illegal acts. All cases noticed will be reported directly to the police.
  
• HiatusMedia.com cannot be held responsible for any externally linked content on HiatusMedia.com.
  
• Any problems regarding the HiatusMedia webshops, unless it refers to the shop front or any product design, are entirely the responsibility of the manufacturer. For customer service information, visit the respective publisher/manufacturer (www.lulu.com or www.cafepress.com).
  
• By contacting any member of HiatusMedia or supplying any details to HiatusMedia, you agree that HiatusMedia may use these details in whatever way they wish within the law, including but not limited to: sending emails, supplying email addresses or otherwise to third-party organisations, distributing these details amongst the public.
  
• You may store any downloadable content on HiatusMedia, provided that you have evidence that the content belongs to its respective copyright holder and that you are authorised to store it.
  
• You accept that the website operates under UK and International law only, apart from shop details and hosting information. Shop details operate under US law. All hosting queries operate under US law on www.ipower.com.
  
• You accept that any characters or entities on HiatusMedia.com may be fictional, despite claims suggesting otherwise. You also accept that any information on HiatusMedia.com may be false or change from time to time.
  
• You accept that any problems encountered with Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Windows Media Player or any other external plug-in or program used to access the site are the sole responsibility of the program owner and not HiatusMedia.com.
  
• You accept that by saving a copy of any literature on the site, you are granted a license of one year for the personal ownership of the document.
  
• You may not distribute the content on any website or portal, print the document or plagiarise the work. Anyone found committing any of the above or any form of copyright infringement will be prosecuted. The document must be deleted off your system after the period of one year, at which point you may download the document again.
  
• You accept that any offence taken from content on this site is entirely the fault of the user, and that when we say to use one's own discretion we mean it.
  
• You accept that further revisions may be made to these terms of service at any time, and that it is the user's sole responsibility to check these terms.

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HiatusMedia currently has no fixed address, but you can contact us by email in the following ways:

Christopher Fraser: chris@hiatusmedia.com
Site bugs, organisational and business enquiries, content-specific feedback, collaboration opportunities, legal issues.

Joseph O'Brien: bunnyreaper@yahoo.co.uk
Content-specific feedback, hate mail, passing thoughts, attempts to be funny.

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HiatusMedia was first established in February 2008, as a showcase for the works of Christopher Fraser, Joseph O'Brien and now ex-member Matthew Aplin.

Its foundations lie in a previous project, entitled YourHeartWillStop. YourHeartWillStop spanned the period from February 2007 to February 2008, and followed very much the same ethos as HiatusMedia does now - to serve as a showcase for three young creatives, at this time including Christopher Fraser, Joseph O'Brien and Simon Bamforth (all acting under pseudonyms, namely Pianoabuser, Bunnyreaper and SinowBeat). The name was first proposed during a music lesson by Simon, and suited the site well; it did, after all, contain a host of content that could be considered offensive.

The stimulus for setting up this original site lay in three discrete categories. One: the animation project of XavierFace was drawing to a close, and although there was a dedicated website to it we felt it needed to be integrated into a larger project. Two: the website would play host to a series of rants, typically written by Simon, commenting on various groups in society. And three: a series of extremely offensive short stories written by Christopher and Joseph, characterised by their gruesome content, had gained massive popularity in the founders' school, and it served as a place to showcase them. During YourHeartWillStop's time, a book was published, entitled XavierFace: Acts One, Two and Three. In this book, the original scripts of the cartoon series XavierFace were placed in their unexpurgated form. Another book, The Children's Medical Placebo Handbook was published, but no copies (other than the original authors') were purchased.

YourHeartWillStop ran its course for a year, and stopped when Simon declared he was leaving. From here, HiatusMedia was born, and a new contributor was added - Matthew Aplin, known at the time as cursestar. Over the course of the fourteen months the first version of HiatusMedia was online, Matthew contributed a couple of short stories, and a series of highly offensive ramblings, characterised by their inscription in the first person and apparent disregard for taste. Content from Matthew dwindled as time went on, and as such he is not featured on this website.

During the first phase of HiatusMedia, two books were published, Hiatus: Volume One, and The Children's Medical Placebo Handbook (a reissue). Hiatus: Volume One contained a compilation of a variety of content from both YourHeartWillStop and HiatusMedia - including the standalone texts of XavierFace (by this point renamed to How To Be A Homosexual) and The Children's Medical Placebo Handbook. It also contained the short stories popularised in their school, Matthew Aplin's mock-meditations, and the first publication of a series of off-kilter sketches entitled Hiatus. In total, twelve copies of Hiatus: Volume One were ordered, and again the reissue of The Children's Medical Placebo Handbook sold none.

As with before, on the back of their success in secondary school, the founders progressed to sixth form college, where they continued to promote their works amongst their peers, and were again met with resounding popularity.

After some time, HiatusMedia was closed down temporarily, to improve quality standards. In its current form, content will be gradually restored in the blog format, with certain noted absences. The content of Matthew Aplin will not be restored, as it was deemed to be certainly the most offensive of anything written, as will no other content likely to upset. All content from here will be vetted.

Registered users of Blogger.com (or users with an OpenID) can now comment on HiatusMedia, which is probably the biggest change since the site's first inception. However, if you have any general comments or suggestions, please send them via email to support@hiatusmedia.com.

Christopher Fraser currently studies English Literature, French, Spanish and Philosophy.

Christopher was bullied from a very early age, usually only keeping with a close-knit group of friends. This was further enhanced by his advanced age in relation to the school calendar, and as such he was often placed in classes where the majority were a year younger than him.

In Priestnall, his first words to Joseph O'Brien characterise their relationship today entirely, and were spoken during a French exam in his first year in reference to Joe's asthma:

"For God's sake, Joe, will you just stop breathing?"

The two became good friends on a trip to Austria with their school. After this time, the two became hetero life-partners, and have not looked back since.

Christopher's life has been marked by various ups and downs: a placement in a primary school where he appeared to be the only one who didn't enjoy sport; a gradual friendship with a number of people who only later went on to private schools; a chance meeting with a psychopathic sadist which later developed into a love/hate bond between the two; a ridiculously long relationship with a person who had more issues than Austin Powers watching a porno; a successful application to a college where the emphasis was on care rather than studiousness; and, as a result, Christopher reached a point where his entire outlook on life was incredibly confused.

Christopher, in addition to writing much of the material on this site (especially anything with an element of coordination, such as this page), is a musician and sometimes artist. He currently promotes neither talent.

An outwardly eccentric but inwardly tortured soul, Joseph delights in confusion, especially around people he knows well. However, when confronted with any figures of authority, he often becomes agitated, panicking about how to communicate with them. This can vary from the parents of other students to shop clerks.

Joseph takes a keen interest in the acting profession, and has a keen eye for comedy. Slightly more unrestrained than Christopher, his writings have a tendency to step right to the boundaries of taste, often placing the odd toe just over.

His height, nerdy-yet-open image and desire to perform often turn Joe into a cult figure wherever he goes. However, his elevated sense of consciousness often prevents him from making close friends, instead collecting a large fanbase due to his enigmatic dramatis personae.

Joe spends a large amount of his time watching television and playing console games, and entertains a relatively laid-back (some would say squalid) lifestyle.

Although Joseph tends to be the more productive of the team, much of his content is often left due to his poor organisational skills, and it is often the case that his material is scavenged by Chris and posted. Much of his material, although comedic in essence, reveal the sort of thinking that has influenced it, and demonstrate an almost unique writing style.

Joseph often deters people by singing loudly and out-of-tune, though to some this is seen as entertainment and it is rare nowadays that he can get through a day without someone demanding a recital.

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